A leap of faith led Shay Naidoo to the hospitality industry, and 10 years later she is still growing stronger in the business.
After 14 years of working for an upmarket hospital in the administration department, a phone call changed her life.
“I loved my job, I made myself available wherever I could. But when I got suspended [after being accused of being rude to a patient] it surprised me because I always treated people with respect and made sure they were assisted. I could not understand why all this was happening to me,” explained Naidoo.
The mother of two found herself sitting at home, feeling sad and questioning what happened. She said days turned into weeks and a month. Then a letter changed her life.
“One day I had to collect mail from the post office and I thought it was a letter from the hospital because I had been waiting for them to call me to say, ‘come back to work’. When I got the letter I was disappointed because it was just a CD. But on the way home, we drove past a house and, for some reason, I just took the number down,” said Naidoo.
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She said at the time she didn’t know it was the beginning of the wonderful journey of the Siyabonga Guesthouse. She said when she took the number down she had no idea she would buy the property because it was in bad state and need to be demolished and rebuilt.
Naidoo said that although it was dilapidated she saw a gem with potential.
“I had a cottage at the back of my house in Kensington and used to accommodate people when I worked at the hospital. I had turned the cottage into a nice living space for the patients who had come from far and needed space while undergoing treatment. So, when I bought the new property I decided I would open a guesthouse because I already had clients who had been guests at my home and now I had land to build a bigger establishment for accommodation,” explained Naidoo.
“The hospital called me back to work and I told them I needed time off for a month. I needed to kickstart my project and get it running,” said Naidoo. She said after the month, she went back to work, but her heart was now set on her guesthouse and she decided to resign so she could focus on her business – and has never regretted the decision.
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The building of the guesthouse started late in 2007 and was finished by the end of the year.
Naidoo said her parents and husband were her biggest supporters. “It was not easy. I saw a diamond in the rough and my diamond has been shining for 10 years and every day has been an experience.
“I started with no knowledge of how to run a guesthouse but I had a vision and faith, and that has been my driving force,” said Naidoo.
She said that looking back at her journey of how the guest house was born she felt grateful and decided to name it ‘Siyabonga’ which means thank you. She said the guesthouse has been a blessing in her life because it was born from sadness but has given birth to a wonderful journey. Naidoo is now in the hospitality industry full-time and is set to open more guesthouses.
“My journey is still long and I have projects in the pipeline that are dear to me because it will provide job opportunities for others,” said Naidoo.
